July Birthday's

The last two of my grand kids have birthdays this coming weekend. Stephen is going to be 17 on July 2 and Maddie will be eleven on July 4. That will complete the birthdays of my grand kids for this year.

Here is Stephen's card. It is rather simple. Hope he likes it. I expect he will like the piece of paper that is inside better.

I tried several times to do Maddie's card. This is the final card. I kept it very simple. It is a 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" card.

 And------ Here is a picture of the little purse that I made for her. I love the way it turned out. I was able to fussy cut the fabric so that the animals were front and center on both sides. Love the result. I think that the finished size was about 7" x 9". I am looking forward to trying some other sewing/quilting projects in the near future.

Another Birthday

I am not sure where the month has gone. There has been so much going on and so little time to organize my thoughts.

June 25, 2001-- my second granddaughter was born. Her name--Chloe Taylor Beans. I remember seeing her for the first time.

Time marches on and this year she turned 15. This picture was taken last Christmas, 2015. Chloe has since had her hair styled, but I do not have a more recent photo.

While visiting a fabric store in Lansing, I saw this really cute little purse. I thought that it would be something that I could make for my two granddaughters in Kentucky for their birthdays. I looked at the one in the store. I looked at the pattern; I looked at the price tag. It was marked $10.00. I looked at the purse again and thought "I can do that: I don't need a pattern." Well, after three tries, I finally made something that I was happy with. It would have been easier to have bought the pattern but not as challenging. I hope she likes it.

Before I could get her package mailed, I needed to finish her card. It was very simple. I tried to use some of the same colors that was in the purse. I let the designers series paper be the focal image.

Chloe--I love you.

Grandma

My Beautiful Granddaughter

I would like you to meet my oldest granddaughter, Sarah. She lives in Chicago and is headed to Santa Barbara, California, for college in August. We had the privilege of being at her graduation on June 2.

Earlier this year I asked her mother what Sarah would like for a graduation gift. Would she like to have a quilt? The reply--"Yes! She has asked for a quilt like the Chicago flag. She saw a small quilted wall hanging at a local quilt shop. She wants it big enough to wrap up in."

What does the Chicago flag look like? Is this something I can do? Where do I start? Thus my journey began. I searched the internet for inspiration. First, I had to find out what the Chicago flag looked like. Had someone else made a quilt inspired by the flag? Was there a pattern available with instructions on how to make a "Chicago Flag Quilt"? Look at the stars. They have six points, but each point is elongated. So let me share my journey.

The flag--

The result--

The back--

The next thing I needed was a graduation card. Now that I had finished the quilt, could I use the quilt as my inspiration? Of course!

On the inside, I made two pockets that held the notes that Grandpa and I wrote to her.

We were blessed to be in Chicago and watch as Sarah received her diploma from Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights, Illinois. On Friday morning she headed to Camp Timber-lee in East Troy, Wisconsin where she will be working as a counselor for the summer.